
Class JESj5-5:4^ 
Book ■ F 5 ^iQ:S 

COFStlGHT DETOSIC 



TX7ebster's 

30CGi© 




MXM> 

other 



Commemorative lr*7w»-^2 .^^ 

jLdition I-(yrics 



REVISED AND EDITED BY 

Malter 3. Coates 

East Calais, Vermont 



COPYRIGHT 1920 



jSoIitarian fireee 

HARTLAND, VERMONT 

June 1920 



V^-^ '" ...lo^ 



JUL -8 1920 
5)nU571625 



. ■•^-« I 



^ Oriental Songs and Other Lyrics 




a Morb about Mebster 

HE AUTHOR of the following poems was 
born in Cabot, Vermont, July 17, 1831, and 
died in the nearby town of Calais, Septem- 
ber 15, 1907. 

Born on a farm, of a large family, a natural 
student, educated in the common schools and at 
the Universitj^ of Vermont, he taught for a num- 
ber of 3^ears in Vermont and Quebec. But rest- 
lessness and a hermit spirit early possest him ; 
and he led all his days a wandering and solitary 
life, returning to rest at last among the green 
hills of his native state. 

A character or genius that could blossom out 
into such verses as Webster's is worthy of atten- 
tion. His poeiry is alwaj^s elevated : most of it is 
tender : but, because he was an idealist — because 
he held himself apart from the companionship of 
kindred minds and ^vas denied every encourage- 
ment that comes from a congenial home — he 
lackt some of the comprehensive sympathy that 
comes to the married man amidst the broadening 
pursuits of social and industrial life. There was 
no romance in his career ; and there is no sex 
passion in his poetry. The very isolation,--- the 
sensitive, ascetic nature of V/ebster,--- prevented 
him from making practical or social problems his 
own. Yet, compensating for the idealism that in- 
evitably narrowed his outlook, we have in his 
written lyrics (only a few of which are here pub- 
lisht )the reflection of a personality beside whom 
most of our present magazine poets appear cheap, 
tawdry, and materialistic. 



Oriental Songs and Other Lyrics 



Webster, classical student, lover of art and cul- 
ture, serious and refined, had no sympathy for the 
scramble after \vealth that marks our monopolist- 
ic age. The temper of ancient Greece, the forgot- 
ten mystery and glamor of Eg3'pt, the dreamy rev- 
erence and occult symbolism of India influenced 
him. His verse is fragrant with incense of the East. 
Sombre, austere, reserved, he was nevertheless re- 
fined and gentle. His mind was preternaturally 
fanciful, markt by a restless devotion to beauty 
and truth. His songs are the wild, wailing melody 
of a hungry and isolate soul. Gloom encompast 
but could not conquer hinj ; could not quench his 
inner light. Early ambitions were never quite for- 
got: the earl3' 13're never lost its sw^eetness. The 
strains of 'Veritas' ring as true, chaste, mellow as 
the silver footfalls that echo thru his 'Sultana's 
Tomb'. Even 'Death Prayer'- final invocation of 
a forlorn old age— is gentle, refined, touching, --full 
of a noble self-revelation. Personal hope is never 
entirely absent from Webster's verses; and in that 
sonorous and fascinating lyric, 'The Rolling Wave' 
he dreams of the soul that shall at last dwell 
' 'Mid sun-ra3^ed Islands of the Blest, 
And untumultuous be.' 
Love of nature — its innocence, rhythm, gladness — 
abounds in his work ; and the eulogies to Keats, 
Poe, Sophocles, show what inspired his own muse. 

That such idealism ma3^ not utterly perish, i 
have assembled and retoucht his neglected l3^rics, 
have selected a few of the best, and now offer this 
volume as a tribute to the mind that conceived and 
contribution to minds that may appreciate these 
hitherto unknown songs. Walter J. Coates 



Qdental jQ>onos 




proem 
Zbc Xotus fflovvers 

RUTH ONCE CAME to the charm-ed shrine 
Where dwelt the Lotus Flower divine : 
O sacred Symbol, silent Flower, 
Thou art our own immortal dower ! 



Thy light illumed the Sphynx's face 
With mysteries no tongue could tell ; 
And Egypt's night, with tender grace. 
Still guards her awful secrets well. 

And still on Karnak's columns grand 
The Lotus Flower forever lives — 

A beacon on the desert strand 

Of Truth and Beauty which it gives. 

Sweet, ever-living Lotus Flower, 
Thy dreams once lit Tona's lore, — 

Sweet dreams of Truth's eternal hour 
That live in memories evermore. 



Oriental Songs and Other Lyrics 



Bright summer dreams of Truth and Love 
Burst from the Orient's portal door; 

And, winging thru the heavens above, 
They rested on ^gean's shore. 

Sweet breathings from the Lotus Flowers 
Were ^wafted o'er Athena's towers, 
Softening the poet's silver tone 
With rhythms sweet and Auster's moan. 

And then the morning Orient gleams 
Brought from the dusk the marble dreams, 
On tomb and temple standing high, 
With sweet Ilissos murmuring b3 \ 

O Lotus Flower, th3^ light was known 
Kre Ocean mourned her Venus flown, 
Or wing-ed Mercury did seem 
To thrill the groves of Academe. 

Sweet ripples on the sounding shore 
Bear the dim echoes evermore 
Of lost and fading melodies 
Thru all the silent centuries. 

Whose notes were of the Orient born 
Upon some bright resplendent morn — 
A symphony that Memnon made 
When, at the Dawn, his music played. 



CtlJXj] 6 Ip^ 



Oriental Songs and Other Lyrics 



Breame of Bubbba 

^^^nEAK DREAMS of Buddha, blessed Light, 
ll^pThou hast dispelled Cimmerian night: 
^^^Kwe dread not the Lethean wave, 
Nor damp seclusion of the grave. 

Thy Lamp has shone three thousand years, 
Has shed no blood and caused no tears ; 
It lighted up the Sphynx's face 
Thru Egypt's night, with tender grace. 

With thy dear Light the marbles bloom 
Kound every Grecian tower and tomb ; 
And Athens still remembers thee 
When moans the sad, unresting sea. 

Thy Love yet lives in Memnon's tone: 
Thru all the silent ages gone 
Thou didst inspire their golden prime 
To Pythian dreams of Truth sublime. 

Once in Boabdil's garden bloomed 
Thy favorite flower, so long entombed : 
It softened the amber flame that lies 
Tranced in the calm of Roman skies. 

Sweet are the visions of the Muse 
Who lives, like thee, in sunset hues, 
Dreaming thru all the changing years, 
Unburdened by blood or tears. 



cjxxxj] 7 m^ 



Oriental Songs and Other Lyrics 




Xove anb Xigbt of Bubbba 

ROUND HIGH TOWERS and moonlit tombs 
The Love and Light of Buddha blooms ; 
Backward our earthly love ma}^ fly, 
But Buddha's Love ma}^ never die. 

Its warm and slumbrous waves enfold 
Temple and tower and ruin old ; 
Sweet dreams of Buddha-Love untold 
The silent sacred years unfold. 

Swiftly each nois3^ epoch flies, 
Oblivion mars their memories ; 
But in the dust of crumbling tombs 
The Love and Light of Buddha blooms. 

His Light illumes our mortal being. 
The worn-out Spirit ever freeing : 
And thou. Nirvana, art so nigh 
That in thy bosom we may lie. 

In silver seasons of the moon, 
'Mid Vvdiispering groves whose rippling rune 
Dispels all darkness and all glooms. 
The Love and Light of Buddha blooms. 



c?]iM) 8 rfxpti 



Oriental Songs and Other Lyrics 




^be 3abnima : or (Bar&en of fll>^ Soul 

(A F anions Persian Garden) 

ow DOTH El Eddiri in his garden stroll — 
The Jahninia, or "Garden of my Soul". 

Happy he wanders thru the morning hours, 
Enchanted by the rhythm of the flowers 
That throb and tremble in the golden gleam 
And bend their faces to the sun's last beam. 

They sv^ring their jew^eled censers to the sun 
Whose liquid glories thru the garden run ; 
And flower and tree now take a richer glow 
While mirrored in the placid stream below. 

How sv^eet the Zephyr that in rippling waves 
Around his weary feet the green earth laves ! 
The songs of birds and gentle runes of spring 
Make the bright pleasance with soft music ring. 

'Mid hill and vale, 'mid blue and emerald boT^rers, 
The pearly fountains rain their silvery showers ; 
And verdure dense, up-piled in ridges green, 
Ends the long vista of the beauteous scene. 

Then said El Eddin, in that happy hour: 
"What signifies the bird, the tree, the flower? 
Are they not tokens of that world beyond, 
Where grows the immortal rose and deathless 
frond ? 

Surely some truths from the Eternal Spring 
These living glories to my spirit bring ; 
Their light and beauty lead me to my goal — 
O Jahnima, — thou 'Garden of my SotiT!" 

J* 



Oriental Songs and Other Lyrics 



But evermore the conscious loving flowers 
Follow the sun and count the shining hours, 
Dreaming forever of some brighter clime 
Illumined by more splendid suns sublime — 

A. region where more brilliant oceans roll — 
Where wretched man may find a happier goal — 
Where sweeter music of more radiant seas 
Floats o'er the shores in softer inelodies. 

Oh, in my heart the flowers forever reign ; 
For Love and Truth rule in their bright domain ! 

Tho beautiful and sweet, the flower must die ; 

Softly and silently its petals fly : 

Swift goes the pallid bloom— wraith of the 

flower — 
Subdued by sullen Fate and the strong Hour ! 

Dasbti's IPow 

SAW a Lady Phantom, pale, 
Who would not go without her veil ; 
Her soul should be without a stain : — 
Was e'er such glorious faith in vain? 

Commanded by an impious king 
Before a maudlin host to bring 
The jewel of her beauty rare, 
She stood imperial, unco wed, 
In queenly chastity, and vowed 
Her virgin fealtj^ there ! 

Hov^ faithful and how beautiful — 

Reigning in glory now. 
In the Temple of the Dutiful — 

Vashti will keep her vow ! 




Oriental Songs and Other Lyrics 



We mark the graves where many Vashtie rest 
Whose memories fair live on the golden lyres; 

The ages roll, but still we deem them blest 
Whose truth and virtue tend the vestal fires, 
Whose faith immortal feeds unfading pyres : 

The Isis, veiled before her temple's shrine, 
That ever to loftier love and life aspires — 

The solemn altars burn with flame divine, 
And these pure Spirits in eternal splendor shine. 

In radiant apotheosis they rise- 
Divinities that hear the Master's call — 

Eager, aspiring, high — the envious skies 
Will ever keep them in a loving thrall : 
They shine as stars supreme that never fall, 

But they illume our mortal night below 
That hangs above us like a funeral pall ; 

Bright rays of Truth upon us they bestow, 
And light the devious waj^s in which all mortals 

go. 

In the sweet visions of the Beautiful 

Some magic Lands Elysian always lie — 

A lofty world of dream-life that is full 

Of brightest love and truth that cannot die- 
Enchanted Land before mine inward eye ! 

Loved Faces linger and lost Voices come 
While these sweet Visions ever upward fly ; 

And thru the ebon door in myriads roam. 
Gilding the sacred Truth on each enchanted 
dome. 



CjljEj] 11 CjlJlJ] 



Oriental Songs and Other Lyrics 



And thou, brig^ht Vashti of the ages, sleep, 
And take deep draughts of sweet Lethe- 
an rest ! 
Truth, Love, and Honor evermore shall keep 
Thy sacred name and guard thj^ high be- 
hest. 
No greater and no more immortal test 
Of honor or eternal faith than thine 

Has man beheld on earth : now take thy 
rest. 
And thj' most glorious name shall stand and 
shine 
As stars in heaven above — but ever more di- 
vine. 

O Vision sweet, before us rest forever : 

Thy memory is enthroned and never dies ; 
Naught from our souls thy faith and love can 
sever. 
Though thou dost dwell bej^ond the amber 

skies ! 
So Love, supernal, to its fountain flies, 
Lives thru all life and thru the night of time ; 

Nor, lost in the dim flying centuries — 
But dwells above in mightier spheres sublime, 
Though stilled be broken lyre and lost the poet's 
rhj^me. 



im^ 12 l^Ipti 



Oriental Songs and Other Lyrics 



ZTbe Sultana'6 ^omb 

Taj Mahal, at Agra, India — a memorial tem- 
ple of matchless splendor — was built by the Mo- 
gul Emperor, Shah Jehan, to commemorate the 
virtues of his Empress, or Sultana. Travellers 
often note, in passing thru buildings of solid gran- 
ite or marble, the low ringing sound, or intona- 
tion occasioned by their own footfalls on the stone 
courts. — Webster 



\S^^^ In 



HKILLED by the dead Sultana's love, 
he mighty temple towers above 
snoAvy splendor, chaste and lone, — 
Bright symbol of a Spirit flown. 



Death's slumber weighs her eyelids down 
And binds the heart more chill than stone, 
Whose pure and flawless faith divine 
Is symboUed in this matchless shrine. 

Pictured on the stonework, high 

Above the grave where she doth lie, 

In sw^eetest fantasies, her tomb 

Is wreathed with flowers of marble bloom. 

A sacred blaze — a vestal flame — 
Commemorates her cherished name 
In silvery radiance, and gleams. 
And softly shows the sculptor's dreams. 

^pmi 13 (ppti 



Oriental Songs and Other Lyrics 



In cenotaph and graven scroll, 
In lofty dome and darksome mole, 
The Pythians of Love and Truth 
Immortalize her virgin youth. 

Awhile on earth her Soul did gleam. 
Then vanished to this stately dream ; 
Where evermore her footfall reigns 
In marbled sweet ^olian strains. 

Bright Lotus-bulbs in mystic grace 
Are traced around her resting-place, 
And with enchantment thrill again 
The memories of her life and reign. 

Sweet Vision veiled in vermeil stone ! 
The temple bears thy tender tone 
In haunting murmurs, low and sw^eet, 
Where go the silver sandalled feet. 

Alone, Lost Echo ever moans, 
Responding to her dying tones ; 
Alone, the sombre marbles sigh 
Their undertones of sad good-bye, 

Sw^eet as the music of the spheres 
And blending with the falling tears 
Of one who ever weeps and mourns 
For a Lost Voice that ne'er returns. 



Cj3C?3C!3 14 ctlMJ 



Oriental Songs and Other Lyrics 




Iblnboo Burial 

EAR GENTLY the Dead to his Goal, 
The sweet Summer-Land of the Soul- 
To blissful Nirvana the Blest, 
His final, unbroken rest. 

In the beautiful Land of the Sun 
The Wanderer's journey is done : 
On his bier the body is placed ; 
On his face no sorrow is traced. 

The boat glides by flower and frond 
Into mystical vistas beyond. 
Where the Golden Pagoda doth glow 
In the waveless waters below — 

By garden and grove and green bower, 
By field and forest and tower, 
Where trees their burdens disown 
And Spirits, unheeded, have flown. 

But suddenly rise the Pale Towers, 
The dim and the white Spectral Towers, 
And strange fatal Hours are here, 
Still watching the Dead on his bier. 

O Land of the blissfulest quest — 
Nirvana, Nirvana the Blest — 
Where the Dead shall be laid to his rest, 
No more to be pained or opprest ! 

How sweet, in its Silence, the Goal ! 
How sweet the Home of the Soul ! — 
Nirvana — In thee to be free ! — 
Nirvana — Ineffable Sea ! 



cmi* 15 fmxti 




Oriental Songs and Other Lyrics 

lln apotbeo0i0 

(The Emperor Shah J eh an, after Death) 

ONG like Endj^mion, sweetly sleeping, 
He rested bj^ the dreamless wave : 
The Fates now have him in their keep- 
ing ; 
For thej^ are just, and they will save. 

Now in lands Lethean, longing, 
Worships he a Vision bright, 

As, from out the shadows thronging. 
Faces come all Tvreathed in light. 

Love lives again, all reinstated 
From a dim deserted strand — 

Child's and mother's recreated, 
In this bright and happy land. 

No griefs, no Niobean tears 

In careworn channels flow ; 

Nor an}^ broken flower appears — 
Where trumpets never blow. 

Life grants a nobler diadem 

To him within this realm divine: — 

The Lotus, an immortal gem. 

Shall grace his Heavenly shrine. 

He, beyond the sundering tide. 
Meets his children at their play ! 

Greets them at the Fountain-side — 
Not as flowers that fade away ! 



Ct3C^ 16 c^DCp^ 



Oriental Songs and Other Lyrics 




Bubbbiet Ib^mn 

E REST in Buddha's Light, above, 
Thrilled by its Truth, lost in its Love 
O Buddha, we are lost in Thee — 
A part of thine Eternity ! 

Eternal One, thy Being bounds 
All time and space, all sight and sounds ; 
The winds and seas are minor kej^s 
Of thine eternal melodies ! 

Thy glory breaks upon our view 
As sunbeams burst on drops of dew ; 
The dewdrops fall into the sea. 
And so our souls are lost in Thee. 

Our souls shall seek immortal rest 
And blissful Silence, ever blest, 
Near Buddha — rest in Him alone. 
Beside the gemmed and lotused throne. 



^PPV 17CJJ[J]CJ3 



Qlassical anb jQescdptive 




Xanb of Hppensell 

(The Mountain- Land of Dreams' 

3 LITTLE Land of Appenzell, 

Much would I love in thee to dwell ; 
For here thy skies and cold rocks blend 
And evermore thy soil defend ! 

They saved thee from the Despot's rage 
And served thee well from age to age : 
Better than forts and navies are 
Th}^ glaciers' grind and dazzling glare. 

Among thy snow3'^ mountain copes 
Is naught to lure the soldier's hopes : 
Starvation and the frost are there, 
And vultures would his vitals tear. 

Tho deadly fanged and fierce were he 
As monsters of a dream could be, 
Yet could he not attack such foes 
As the whelming mountain snows. 

No plunder there! — no glor3^'s goal! 
On him the avalanche might roll : 
Such poverty and solid ice 
No ravening host would e'er entice. 



Oriental Songs and Other Lyrics 



Nor lust of Fame, nor lust of Power 
Disturbs thy quiet evening hour; 
Wherefore thou'rt left in peace to dwell, 
O blessed Land of Appenzell ! 

Sweet Sittern rolls her murmuring stream, 
Unvexed by war or vulture's scream ; 
Blood darkens not her limpid waves ; 
Her shores contain no bloody graves. 

Thou hast no kings nor gilded domes, 
But thou hast sweet and peaceful homes, 
Where Love and Truth are throned on high 
Beneath the azure of thy sky. 

The tides of war will hardly swell 
To reach the Land of Appenzell. 



1keat9 

Thy soft sweet breath has called to life again 
Athena's strange and long-lost melodies: 

Their love lives ever in thy gentle strain, 
Sweet as the murmur of the winds and seas. 

Thy matchless tone a deep enchantment lends 
To porch and column, grove and garden gay ; 

And the sweet stream of Athens ever blends 
With thine own notes that never fade away. 



tmni 19 tmi^ 



Oriental Songs and Other Lyrics 



Ebgar a. poc: lln flDemoriam 



m 



S^t^i N THIS dim border of the Silent Land 

Thy camp is pitched, chief of a newer 
band, 

Whose melodj^ this twilight age inspires, 
Whose love lives, longing, on the golden lyres — 
Whose softest breathing breaks death's gloomy 

bars 
And whom sweet muses lead unto the stars. 

Now all too deep the green earth hides thy head 
And damp seclusion guards thy lowly bed : 
No troublous thing can vex thj^ spirit now, 
So worn and wasted in this world below. 

Can Death estrange thee, sad and silent Soul, 

Or can Oblivion mar the folded scroll 

Since thy enamored breath once touched its 

pages, 
Thou sacred Pythian of eternal ages ? 

How chill, how rude these earthh^ realms un- 
real — 
And flickering every strangely fond ideal ! 



CS3Cj3Ct3 20 C?3Cj3Ct3 



Oriental Songs and Other Lyrics 



The silent mourning, the memorial urns, 

The Muse's sweet embalming of all tears, 
Each dear dead face that, dream by dream, re- 
turns : 
Thus Memory weaves her garlands thru the 
years. 

The fading leaf is like the bosom chill 

And, pale and wan, away it soon must fly ; 

And so our faces, thej^ are paler still 

And whiter grow beneath the ashen sky. 

More garlands for thine o\srn immortal brow^ 
From blooms of Paradise thou weavest now ; 
Or, lulled to rest by soft Lethean streams. 
Thou dwell' st again with Israfel — and dreams. 

Thy songs redeem the cold and silent years ; 
Thy grave grows ever greener from our tears, 
And fleeting phantoms that we here pursue 
Cheat us awhile, then vanish from our view. 

The dead go fast ; the marbles thicker stand, 
And throngs are wending to the Silent Land. 



Ip^X^i 21 



Oriental Songs and Other Lyrics 




^be lEnQlieb (Buttural 

ITH Homer's music in our ears 
Echoing thru three thousand years, 
We scarce can write a single line 
To match the Iliad's verse divine. 

Its low, sweet, vowelled, blending tone 
To our rude English is unknown — 
Whose syntax now is fixed as fate, 
And Muses shun its halting gait. 

Its guttural, coarse, rough, and rude. 
Seems born of savage solitude--- 
A jungle where poor Chaucer, groping. 
Mocked the cuckoo, thereby hoping 
To find some rhythm as he sang 
And soften down the English clang. 

He could not smooth its coarser rune. 
Nor blend it with the Grecian tune 
Whose notes were of the Orient born 
Upon some bright resplendent morn : 
A melody that Memnon made 
When at the Dawn its music played. 

1kcat6 

Low and soft our wood-bird's tone 
Was sounding on the desert lone, 
When, lo, a poisoned arrow flew : 
Its blood now stains the morning dew. 
Behold, what innocence now lies 
Suffusing there its dying eyes ! 



CjEjltj 22 Ctltit] 



Oriental Songs and Other Lyrics 

Buret of Spring 

No MORE shall Spring retreat 
With her winter-bitten feet ; 

But walk with the strong hours, 
Companioned by the flowers ; 
Moving to fair Summer's side, 
Who, with bright and sea-green tide, 
Flooding every hill and vale. 
Breathes her perfume on the gale. 
To the Summer's drowsy rune 
Flowers are dreaming night and noon, 
Quickened by the heat of day. 
Dancing thru the fields of May. 

IDermont 

O LAND of my soul, sweet land of my mountains, 
With sunny green slopes and fresh dazzling 

fountains ! 
Brighter than diamonds to my soul they shall be — 
Than the moon of the mountains or sun of the 
sea ! 

As the sea-bird would fly to her own ocean 

home. 
So to my own native Land would I come 
And hear the low thunder among thy green hills 
As it blends with the music of brooks and of rills. 

t:?]C!3C!3 23 JlfSt^i 



Oriental Songs and Other Lyrics 




H Bream of Hstcc flD^tbolOQ? 

Reminiscent was my dream, 
Backward on Time's gloomy stream 
And ending where Oblivion's waves 
Flood History's countless nameless graves. 

There, in that buried Borderland, 
The Aztec prophets dimly stand. 
Veiled in the cycles of the j^ears 
That heaved w^ith human tears. 

There their mystic symbols shone, 
Painted on the Fatal Stone 
Where the smiting mountains rend 
And, darkling, to the northward trend. 

There fiercely blows the Wind of Knives, 
And, from their beds, the rocks it drives ; 
There the green alligator moans, 
Seeking the Septentriones. 

In spite of danger and of fears 

The soul must seek its higher spheres : 

And, thus devoted, it attains 

The Seven Hills, the Seven Plains. 

Alas, throughout my Aztec dreams 
A Nemesis forever seems 
Watching, along the Line of Fate, 
To restore some Lost Estate. 



[t]Cjlt3 24 CM]Cf] 



Oriental Songs and Other Lyrics 



Sopboclee 

Wi^^/N THE Master's perfect art 
jSjItv^ His fond and loved Ideals shine, 
^=^^^And perfect truth in every part 
Is gilded by his speech divine. 

And like a marble statue plain 

Each thought stands out distinct and clear. 
The Dead Forgotten live again, 

And in his matchlese lines appear. 

As in a mirror, moving by, 

The wild and weird procession goes : 
Here Nemesis forever nigh. 

There strange (Edipus with his woes. 

Now lieth in the grave's retreat 
Thy throbbing heart, Antigone ! 

The world shall feel its pulses beat 
When thrones and tyrants cease to be. 






^ppti 25 :t![tx^ 




Oriental Songs and Other Lyrics 



(Breece an^ atlantis 



B 



jjiGHT UP the ancient altar fires 

With Athena's mystic flame; 
The sw^eet stress of her broken lyres 
Will utter Lost Atlantis' name. 



The sun of Athens brightly beams 
And ever lights the western sky ; 

A marble troop forever seems 
In motion on her temple high. 

'Tis Pan- Athena's festal day 

Sculptured upon this temple grand, 
And here bright memories display 
The lost Atlantic land. 

Athens and Greece remember thee 
Whose mighty heart beneath the sea 
With rhythmic beat forevermore 
Throbs round JEgean's shore. 

When morning gilds the redding wave 

It faintly lights the marble dream 
Of this dim -lighted ocean grave 
Where buried cities gleam. 

Still Auster fans the Grecian strand 

With breathings of lost melody 
From singers of that buried land 
Below^ the murmuring sea. 

IpPti 26 ftn^ 



Oriental Sonsss and Other Lyrics 



Again the sunken lyres intone 
The Undine of the ocean's moan ; 
Lost Echo sinks into a dirge, 
And ever rolls the gloomy surge. 

Upon the sacred silent lyres 

A Master Hand shall strike again, 

Enkindling all the former fires 
Extinguished by the rolling main. 



jTlowere 

Symbols of a Life unchanging, 
Beyond our mortal spheres ranging ; 
Nature's sweet enchanting dower, 
And image of our life's short hour. 

Passion-winged at its sweet birth. 
Each petal seeks its Mother Earth 
(Which is for all a common tomb), 
Leaving in death its fair perfume. 

Exhaling on the upper air, 
O hoTv sweet their memories are ! — 
With us in life ; with us in death ; 
And creatures of a common breath ! 



C?3S»:J3 27 CjlJIJJ 



Oriental SonsEs and Other Lyrics 




tlbe Mar witb fIDeiico 

WO armies face to face at dawn 

A day of blood reveal ; 
And rising splendors run along 

The lines of serried steel. 

The nodding plumes, the prancing steeds, 

The flowers of Chivalry — 
How pale they bloom, these flowers of death, 

'Midst battle's revelry! 

Now round and round in bright platoon 
The countless squadrons glide : . 

The armies rush at bugle-call. 
And to the onset ride. 

With rage sublime the battle roars ; 

Its hoarser treble moans ; 
And thicker grow^ the mounds of slain 

Amid the djang groans. 

And on the reddening Aztec plain 

Our armies laurels win, 
Which Slavery's damning curse doth stain 

With inexpiable sin. 

The plumes of gallant Chivalry 

Stooped lowly on each head : 
The Starry Flag, with gloomy bars, 

Was wrapped around the dead. 



Oriental Songs and Other Lyrics 



Above the graves the volleyed guns 

Intoned in wan despair ; 
The beating of the muffled drums 

Wailed thru the gloomy air. 

Our hearts are saddened by the story 

Of these myriads slain — 
The war that dimmed Columbia's glory 

And proved her valor vain. 

A Nemesis, forever near, 

Stands with menacing rod : 
"Vengeance is mine, I will repay" — 

Such is the doom of God. 

^^^ ou HAVE FOUGHT the dread battle, 
^j8y^ And the bells all now toll ; 

g^g^^YJ O where are you going 

With the blood on your Soul ? 

When the last lightning flashes, 
When the last thunders roll, — 

O where will you go 

With that blood on your Soul? 

1keat6 

Truth's and Beauty's forms divine 

Live on each enchanted line : 

Veiled in thy mysterious tone, 

Thou shalt ever stand alone ; 

All the seas are crystalline 

With that glorious name of thine. 

'PPti 29 'PtW 




Oriental Songs and Other Lyrics 

lEucUb in tbe Spberee 

TRONG Spirit wandering in the spheres, 
Who livest not in smiles and tears ! 
Hast thou yet fathomed the Divine 
Or measured Life with curve or line ? 

Seest thou all the shoreless seas 

Of vast and dim eternities ? 

Is Truth in some vague crypt concealed, 

And to thine eye is naught revealed ? 

Does Isis in her temple fail 
Her hidden mysteries to unveil ? 
Or does Cimmerian darkness dim 
The silent wastes, so dread and grim ? 

Canst thou, O Euclid, never find 
The key to this immortal mind ? 
Tell us, dear Spirit, ere we die ! 
— The mourning urn makes no reply. 

Then, Euclid, from thy Silent Shore 
Come back to this green earth once more ! 
Come sit once more beneath its borers 
Amid the conscious loving flowers. 

These speak of Love more fathoms deep 
Than mortals kno^w, and ever keep 
The bond that Truth and Beauty give, 
And in our spirits ever live. 



[^xji 30 itn^ 



Oriental Songs and Other Lyrics 



Symbols of Life and Love immortal, 
They lead us to the golden portal. 
Leave, then, O Soul, thy viewless spheres, 
Live here with us and calm our fears. 

Sweet Nature is our foster-mother — 
More to us than any other : 

Fount of everj^ blessed thing 

Let us to her bosom cling. 

The mystery of our mortal being 
Is known alone to the All-seeing : 
It is hidden from our eyes — 
A maze of vast infinities. 

The cycles of Eternity 
Bear my God along with me ; 
Firm in Him I put my trust, — 
His hand shall hold my dust. 



Hmerica: tbe IRew Btlantie 

Memphis regains her Lotus flower ; 

Athens her Glories will renew ; 
While porch and column, frieze and tower 

Again in splendor rise anew. 

New music thrills the Golden Lyres — 
Soft Prelude to a Loftier Strain, 

Enkindling all the former fires 
Extinguished b3^ the rolling main. 



Oriental Sonsis and Other Lyrics 

Exiles of tbe fvo^cn Sea 



HE Undine of the icy sea 

Forever grieves along the shore, 
For exiles there may never be 
At home with friends or country more. 



^ 



The phantom lights about the pole 
Flash quickly by with leaden flame — 

Weird symbols of the exile's soul 

So rent w^ith stripes and blood and shame. 

The rifles flash like lightning storms, 
And comes a ringing shriek of pain : 

The lash descends on mangled forms 
And beats them senseless to the plain. 

Upon the dying exile's face 

A dream of golden freedom shone 

Whose sunset splendor shall replace 
With warmer hues the frozen zone. 

Across the lonely frost-bound graves 
How dimly shines the midnight sun ! 

The solemn beat of arctic waves 
Chants requiems for every one. 

In icy climes, 'midst woe and shame, 
They died, so wretched and forlorn ; 

And, uttering Freedom's sacred name, 
Bore thus the despot's wrath and scorn. 

Sweet sleep enfolds them in the grave 
And gentle death defends the bold : 

They have the peace the Master gave. 

And matchless dreams their shrines enfold. 



IpV^ 32 itJl^J 



Oriental Songs and Other Lyrics 



®ur flaQ 

"A THOUSAND years", said Washington, 
"Shall pass before our flag shall fall — 

Kre C?esars cross the Rubicon, 

And Freedom's new-found glories pall." 

A hundred j^ears are not yet gone. 
Yet fears enshroud that brilliant dream ; 

For many Csesars, pressing on, 
Prepare to cross the fatal stream. 

But still our flag upholds the stars 
That shine upon its azure field ; 

Though faction dims the crimson bars 

Where Freedom's type has stood revealed. . 

Then raise that banner to the sky 

Until it stands beside the sun ; 
For Freedom's sons will prostrate lie 

When falls the flag of Washington ! 

ITrutb 

Like glowing webs of gossamer She seems 
Around the dim dominions of our dreams ; 

In all the many ways of wandering thought 
Her golden threads we ply and lose them not ; 

Oft like a gilded orb She stands alone 

And shines effulgent from Her dazzling throne ! 

ClX^ 33 ^mxti 



J7^ric6 of Jjit^ 
anb iDjoraltt^ 




^be ©lb 1Re& Bragon 

UT from the Temple of my Soul, 
And from its inner shrine, 
I drove the Dragon, War : 
He is not mine ! 

The formless Monster now no inore 
Holds crimson riot in my heart ; 

He fastened to my bosom's core. 

But Truth and Right made him depart. 



•lyspfi?' 



Mar 

At every post a militarj^ martinet — 

His form with badges, bands, and stars beset 

Some twaddle in the school of Chivalr}^ 
To varnish over War's diablerie; 

Some trumpeting about Napoleon's glory: — 
But stubborn Fact told me a different story, 

Of poverty and squalor, rags and dust, — 
Of my two wooden legs, and ashen crust ! 



Oriental Songs and Other Lyrics 



a 



2)eab Sea0 

o, NOT ALONE do Dead Seas roll 
Where lie the Cities of the Plain ; 
J Nor yet doth Sodom's perjured soul 
Still wear the darkest, foulest stain. 



They roll where Justice lies asleep 
And Fraud holds her uneven scale — 

Where naen are bought and sold like sheep 
And Truth and Right forever fail. 

W^here Bribery stalks without disguise, 
W^ith brazen front, in light of day, 

As if engaged in high emprise — 

There must these gloomy surges play. 

Beneath the grand cathedral's dome 
Dead Seas will roll their turbid wave ; 

For Pride and Pomp may have a home 
Where Love and Truth have found a grave. 

And darker tides maj'^ overwhelm 
The grandest nation, proud and free, 

If Truth and Justice quit the helm 
And cease to guide her destiny. 

See how the wicked nations fell ! 

Their memories choke the shores of Time : 
The page of history shows full well 

The awful blazon of their crime. 

cWx?: 35 ^PPti 



Oriental Songs and Other Lyrics 



The knelling surge forever moans 
And grieves along the lonely shore, 

As if the Dead's unuttered groans 
Were mingling with her sullen roar. 

Ah, human blood is in each drop 
That forms the ever moaning sea ; 

And the mad waves can never stop 
Their weird and wailing monody. 

Nor land, nor sea, — no spot of earth, — 
But mortal rage has stained with blood : 

What Prophet of the Newer Birth 

Shall come and staunch the crimson flood ? 



In twilight dim my senses swim 
Into a sea of Boundless Being: 

Infinite Sea of Eternity — 
My Soul from all its fetters freeing. 

Over that Sea, that Shining Sea, 
Like the sea-bird on its tireless wing, 

My Spirit flies thru strange bright skies 
Where Truth shall reign in endless Spring. 



r$spp 36 itnV^ 



Oriental Songs and Other Lyrics 




Xife: a Stage performance 

URN DOWN THK LIGHTS, and with averted 
faces stand, 
While many a farce is acted on this stage 
of time ; 

Little or nothing do our modern j^ears demand 
But mediaeval shows and senseless panto- 
mime. 

Before the painted veil some shadowy phantoms 

move, 

While Thought, all passion-winged in its w^ild 

play. 

Flits about the lights, but shows nor Truth nor 

Love, 

Whose wasted forms have vanished quite a- 

way. 

For these, too rudely shaken bj' the desert w^ind, 

Flee the unkind and desolated shore. 
Till some benignant Summer their strong chain 
unbind 
Or some green Spring their sacred forms re- 
store. 

One by one each loved and fond Ideal 

Within whose truth we long have lived before 

Fades to illusion and no more is real, 

Seeming but shadow on this mortal shore. 



CJJCJIJJ 37 cjjcjlf] 



Oriental Songs and Other Lyrics 



Sad years have come ; and direst of derisions, 
Like rude winds, make our many idols fall : 

Now all dispeopled are our sweet Elysians — 
The vanished forms we cannot now recall. 

Where Silence dwells by sweet Lethean Streams, 
While Time, with her unresting tide, sweeps 
by, 
We turn to quiet rest and pleasant dreams, 
And, like tired children, laj" our playthings 
by. 



Ilnternational Biplomac^ 

A REALM OF CHAOS and a shoreless sea 

Where turbid waves of dark deception roll ; 

Its labyrinthine tides no eye can see ; 

No mind can know its dark uncertain goal, 

Subgment 

Go, wretched soul, forlorn and pale. 

Where the Judge Eternal stands, — 
Where Justice holds the even scale 
And gives immutable commands ! 

Thy life-work done— its value sho^^n — 

If wanting it should be — 
Then must it go to the Unknown — 
A dark and dismal shoreless sea ! 



lf][$Jti 38 ttljlt] 



1 



Oriental Songs and Other Lyrics 



Xife 



^^^SKj DEEP, uni 
IKHli Infinit 
^^?i1 With wh 



fathomed Being, Life — 
Infinite and pervading all — 
which the universe is rife 
And holding all things in its thrall ! 

With ceaseless evolution strange 

Kach mote of matter seeks its pole ; 

And thru the illimitable range 
All atoms marshal to their goal. 

Life is a force that never dies, 
Tho matter dies : it lives again ; 

And from its ashes will arise 

And, Phoenix-like, its soul regain. 

'Twixt two infinities we dwell — 
A world above, a world below : 

Here atoms that no glass can tell — 
There mighty orbs no mind can know. 

Our life-dust mounts again to power, 
Swift rising from its lowly grave — 

Lives in the rhythm of the flower 
Or rolls again beneath the wave. 

Down thru the skies the iris flies 
And colors march unto their goal, 

While on the shining canvas lies 

The brilliant dream — a human soul ! 

Thus Life's procession ever moves: 

How weird and strange the figures pass ! 

How swiftly go the noiseless droves 
Like shado^ws moving in a glass ! 



(pMi 39 (tXpZi 



Oriental Songs and Other Lyrics 




^be mortblanb: Minter 

HY FROSTY SKIES bereave of golden tinges 
Our milder summer eunset's radiant 
gleams ; 
The northern glacier evermore impinges 

Upon our sweetly sighing southern streams. 

Blank fields of ice, a fearful frozen zone, 

Hurl forth a chill — a chiding, blighting breeze ; 

And drive our sun, to balmier oceans prone, 
To seek the haven of the tropic seas. 

No longer now do waning days redeem 
The amber t\\rilight in our evening skj^ ; 

But cold thin vapors creep along the stream, 
And dead and faded leaves go rustling by. 

The rose now lives no more in Love's domain; 

Along the winds its withered petals fly. 
As if to escape oncoming Winter's reign; 

And so the roses of my Soul must die. 

Beyond our mortal spheres outranging. 
They may regain their beauty and their bloom — 

Symbols of a Life Unchanging, 
Above this vale of darkness and of gloom. 



(tX^ 40 CtsMi 



Oriental Songs and Other Lyrics 




^bc IRollinQ Mavc 

UMBLING, tumultuous, on the shore, 

The waves, interminable, roll ; 
And ever, in their wailing roar, 
I hear the sad Sea's soul ! 

All dark and dim the gloomy waves. 
Deadened by human blood still more. 

Seem embassies of yawning graves 
While rolling on the lonely shore. 

From out the blood-polluted deep 
They ever try to reach the land ; 

But evermore they vainly sweep 

Along the dim and shadowy strand. 

They sob in unimagined tones 
That ever find response in me ; 

For their sad dirge my spirit owns — 
Give me thy sunken lyres, O Sea ! 

Yet thy foam-crested vt^aves may rest 

On some bright, sunny Summer Sea — 
'Mid sun-rayed Islands of the Blest, 
And untumultuous be ! 



itxpti 41 [tr^ 




Oriental Songs and Other Lyrics 

^be Meb of life : H S)rcam 

LD AND WEIRD and glooni3^ and gray 
Rolls the woven ^^eb sway ; 

Muffled and dim the shuttles play. 

No^w come the Fates, with faces fell, 
Who spin the threads that weave so well, 
And mortal destinies foretell. 

The fatal threads, how true they run ! 
When will the changing web be done ? 
Thru all its maze the Truth is one. 

In silence wild the Weaver ^iveaves 
In figures strange like sibyl's leaves; 
And the sad wind moans and grieves. 

The web portrays the storms that rave, 
The deadly-fanged devouring wave. 
The ashen sky, the yawning grave. 

And hope, with fear, revenge, and hate 
That mar so much our mortal state 
Are woven in this web of Fate. 

Each word, each action, and each thought 
Upon the woven web is wrought. 
Behold the scenes : forget them not ! 

An infant comes, in twilight dim, 
Beside a perilous pitfall grim : 

What will the web reveal of him ? 



42 



Oriental Songs and Other Lyrics 

Smiling he greets the morning ray ; 
But can he climb life's rugged w^ay ? 
Or will he be some Vulture's prey ? 

Next come Youth's winged iaipassioned dreams 
Along the web in golden gleams — 
Or else like shadows over streams. 

Then Love, beneath her enchanted dome, 
Tumultuous as the sad sea's foam. 
Her beating heart Time's metronome. 

Ambition, pride, and greed of gain. 
The fleeting phantoms of the brain, 
Stand out in all their horrid train. 

Now ^warriors come, in pride and power. 
To gain the guerdon of the hour : 

Their bones will whiten in the shower ! 

And war's red vintage ever flows. 
With all its swelling tide of woes : 
O'er heaps of slain the buzzard goes. 

Then round the dim beclouded sky 
In gloomy files the ravens fly ; 
I seem to hear their boding cry. 

Back and forth the shuttles go, 
Weaving wreal and w^eaving w^oe : 
His web the w^eaver may not know. 

O Vision, veil mine inw^ard eye, 
And let it nevermore descry 

The tangled threads we ever ply ! 



Ct]C^ 43 c?]fMJ 



Oriental Songs and Other Lyrics 




Zhe CxxvBC of Bloot)^(5uiltine6e 

arth's Paradise, by Adam trod, 

The blood of murdered Abel stains, 

It colors, too, the ocean's flood : 
Its poison rankles in our veins. 

Ah ! human blood is in each drop 
That forms the ever-moving sea ; 

And the mad waves can never stop. 
Nor from the awful stain be free. 

So heaves and moans the restless deep, 
And blood still darkens all its waves : — 

A curse of blood that w^ill not sleep, 
But even rankles in the graves ! 

It feeds the red and creeping Worm 
That evermore devours the dead : 

It mars our mortal life's brief term 
That from the Poisoned Fount is fed. 

IReacblng Ibiober 

The Beggar's hut may reach much higher 
Than does the tallest, haughtiest spire, 
Which, after all, may be a liar, 
And only feed the accursed pyre 

Of Pride alone : 
The Pauper door may be much nigher 

To God's Throne ! 



Itn^ 44 ipt^ 



Oriental Songs and Other Lyrics 



power of ^rutb 

The Truth is fallen in the street 

Amidst the helpless slain, 
And coming millions ne'er will greet 

Her glorious form again. 

But wait: a Nemesis looks down 

And ever watches Falsehood's reign: 

A jewel fallen from her crown, 
A broken link within the chain. 

When Truth is stricken, memories that remain 
Are dim as those of ancient Shinar's plain: 
Lost Echo in the silent woods of May 
Still murmurs onward thru the fading day. 

But Error dies and leaves no power 

To reproduce its like again ; 
Its life is but a single hour, — 

Truth has eternity to reign. 

Then watch for Falsehood's certain doom. 
And shun, O shun its flowers of death : 

Their pallid hues, their deadly bloom 
Must wither in a moment's breath. 

Truth and Beauty : they are real 

And in harmony combine. 
Forming every grand ideal. 

And, beacon lights, they ever shine. 



45 



Oriental Songs and Other Lyrics 




IDeiitae in Ibiberna 

N THIS Winter of the Soul stands a tomb ; 

Around it the storms howl and roar : 
Pallid ! — pallid as snow in the gloom — 
Where the Bvergreen grow^s nevermore. 

In Winter's dream the Truth remains, 

And dull and cold the glaciers gleam, 
Binding that precious heart in chains 
Which Spring may ne'er redeem. 

The withered leaf, the faded flower. 

Now frozen in the tundra's breeze. 
Frail spectres of a living hour 

Kre Death their pulse could seize. 

Our tears are frozen ere they fall. 

Our hearts, bereaved, must ever mourn 

For such dear life, in gloomy thrall, 
From mortal bosoms rudelj^ torn. 

With Memories load the mourning urn. 

In Silence let its treasures lie ; 
To it with asking lips we'll turn 

Altho it makes us no reply. 



:m^ 46 CtutSt! 



Oriental Songs and Other Lyrics 




Dcatb Ipra^er 

liminter ot ©lb Uqc 

Y WINTER SUN is setting:, wan and wasted, 
Along dim strands, on bleak and lone- 
ly shores : 

Father, reveal to me some truths untasted 
From Thy Supernal Lovers unfailing stores ! 

I poise upon the cold and jagged steep 

While dismal, haunting Shapes its slopes ex- 
plore ; 

And wild and wailing waves forever sweep 
Below^ — with sullen surge and stunning roar ! 

Father, I call to Thee ! Let there be light 
To shine upon the mountains dark and dim — 

To chase away the Phantoms of the Night 
That lurk around the low horizon's rim ! 

We wait for Thee with faces wan and pale 
That whiter grow beneath the ashen sky : 

Where heart and flesh and hope and faith must 

fail, 
Give us some token ere we faint and die ! 



tm^ 47 im^ 



i 



01593080^^^^ 




